wut up wit all dis "bible shmibe"? the bible isn't important. look at all the dis-harmony it causes. look at the arguing. look at all the anger, the big headedness on both sides of the arguement. this isn't what the message of God was. the message of God was to love one another.
i have never been able to understand bible advocates who treat the "non-belivers" with bitterness. isn't one of the most important messages of Jesus that we are all equal? if you call you self a christian, a follower of christ, i just don't think that you should put down the "non-believers".
look at it this way, everyone is on thier spiritual journey. most people admit to going through a stage in thier life where they questioned the existance of a supreme being. we are all at different stages of our spiritual realization. you cannot put people down for what they believe or don't believe. that is between them and God. no one else.
i don't believe that just because someone claims to be a christian, that that makes them an all knowing authority on what the ultimate truth is that we should all believe. our individual beliefs are dependant upon our own unique experiences in life, and they are subject to change for all of us. what i believe today is different from my understanding of God a few years ago, which is different from what i believed as a child, which will be different than what i will understand about God by the time i'm middle aged and when i'm an old woman. it's an evolutionary process and is different for everyone.
as christians, we need to accept all people, no matter what their beliefs on God. none of us understand God in it's entirety, therefore we should refrain from making judgments, as those judgments will without question be made under a shadow of ignorance.
also understand that the bible has been misinterpreted over thousands of years and through hundreds of cultures. these are the result of human mistakes obviously. i hardly think that we can any longer rely on the bible as an unfaulted spiritual resource, or as a basis to judge other people. ( i cringe whenever i hear someone quote from the bible.)
so if someone chooses not to believe in the bible, or in a supreme being, we cannot make judgments. we can still treat everyone with respect for thier beliefs, and a kind hand toward a person who does not belive is more proof of a divine existance than any quote from our almighty bible.
-kath.
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McSpotlight: This is the most reasonable post I've read on the subject. I dread to think what the responses will be...
